Kitchen Backsplash Tile Installation in Calgary

Tiles we install

Subway tile in every size from 2x6 to 4x16, hand-moulded zellige, picket and arabesque shapes, herringbone mosaics, marble penny rounds, glass and metal accents, and full-height slab backsplashes in porcelain or quartzite. Whatever you've pinned, we can install it — and we'll tell you honestly which choices are great and which ones are going to make your life difficult.

Zellige and other handmade tiles look incredible installed and brutal installed badly. They need tight nesting joints, sponge work between every few tiles, and a grout colour that's chosen knowing the colour will pull through the tile face. We've installed enough zellige to know which suppliers' lots are workable and which ones aren't.

Layout planning

Before any thinset goes on the wall we mark the centre of the cooktop, the centre of the hood, and the working countertop heights. The pattern gets balanced so cuts land in low-visibility places — behind the range, against the upper cabinets, beside the fridge — not in the centre of the focal wall. Outlets get cut around with a wet saw and a hole-and-snap, not chiseled out with a grinder.

Edges, outlets and finishes

Where the tile meets cabinets or windows we use a Schluter Jolly or a mitered tile return — never raw cut edges. Outlets get spacer boxes pulled out flush with the tile face so cover plates sit flat, not floating in front of the wall. The transition between countertop and tile is caulked in a colour-matched flexible caulk so it can move with the house without cracking.